INSTITUTIONAL PUBLICATION PRODUCTIVITY IN SELECTED GERONTOLOGY JOURNALS, 1984-1993

Researchers in several disciplines have been interested in institutional research publication productivity as a means of assessing institutional reputation in a given field. However, no previous research has specifically examined institutional productivity in the field of gerontology. The authors selected six non-medical, non-biological scholarly journals devoted to gerontological issues. Each was examined issue by issue for the 10-year period 1984-1993 to determine the institutional affiliations of contributing authors. Institutional rankings for the composite six journals for the total period and each of the two 5-year periods were determined by awarding credit to the authors' institutions based on authorship order. The six journals were: Activities, Adaptation, and Aging; Educational Gerontology; The Gerontologist; Gerontology and Geriatrics Education; the Journal of Applied Gerontology; and the Journals of Gerontology (Social Sciences and Psychological Sciences sections only). In the composite of the six journals, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), the University of Southern California, Duke University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Florida emerged as the five most productive individual institutions for the overall 10-year period on this one measure of program quality.